Passionate Pleasures (30 page)

January passed, and then in February, Tim received a telephone call one evening.

Kathryn heard him say, “No, but thanks for thinking of me. No, I’m quite happy where I am, thanks.”

“What was that?” she asked him afterwards.

“Job offer,” he said. “But I’m content here. I’m not ever going to leave Egret Pointe. Hallock tells me the board already wants to extend my contract, and I’m happy to let them. It’s a good little school, and they’re letting me try some new stuff with the kids.”

She let it go, but then that same February weekend, Ray Pietro d’Angelo showed up in Egret Pointe with his wife to ostensibly visit his cousin, Joe. Tiffany invited the Blairs to dinner. It was after dinner that Kathryn saw her husband in deep conversation with Ray. Unable to control her curiosity, she walked over to where the two men were seated and heard her husband say, “No, Ray.”

“Look, the board is ready to give you a long-term contract, and pay you a heck of a lot more than Egret Pointe is paying you. You’ll have carte blanche to institute all those programs that Grainger wouldn’t let you try. You’ll have a housing allowance, and I hear your co-op deal fell through, so you can just move right back in and the school will be paying the taxes and maintenance.”

“No,” Tim Blair said. “Listen, Ray, I’m married now. I love Egret Pointe. I love my job, and I’m not going anywhere. Honestly, there is nothing you could offer me that would make me change my mind. I don’t want to go back and be headmaster of Kensington. It was kind of the board to offer, and maybe if I hadn’t fallen in love with Kathy and married, I might have considered it. But I did, and so my answer is no.”

“Maybe your wife would like living in the city,” Ray said.

Kathryn stood silent. Neither man had noticed her.

“Nope, she’s Egret Pointe born and bred, Ray.”

“Ask her,” he said.

“I don’t have to, Ray. I know my Kathy. This is our home. We have family. Did you know I have eight nieces and nephews now that include fraternal twin girls, and a set of identical triplet boys born right after our wedding last December? I’ve just been elected to my church’s vestry. My life in the city was dull. My life here in Egret Pointe has been nothing but exciting. Besides, Rowdy would hate being cooped up again. He loves his big backyard. Thank the board for me, Ray, but tell them my decision is final.”

“She’s a lucky woman,” Ray Pietro d’Angelo said.

“No, I’m a lucky man,” Tim replied, and he reached out to draw Kathryn close, for he had realized she was standing there listening. “I’ll explain later,” he told her.

As they drove home afterward he told her. “It seems David Grainger, the headmaster of Kensington, has been fucking around with Irene DuBois, the thirty-three-year-old French teacher. He got her pregnant, and when she told him, he said if she would fuck around with him she would fuck around with other guys. She couldn’t prove the kid was his. Of course she got a lawyer. She says he promised to leave his wife, and marry her.”

“They all promise to leave their wives and marry the other woman,” Kathryn said dryly. “They rarely if ever do. So what’s happening?”

“Ms. DuBois went public. Claims Grainger raped her after the faculty Christmas party when she remained behind to clean up, but then he became her lover. He denied it all at first, until she claimed to be able to identify a specific mark on his body that she couldn’t have seen unless they were engaged in sexual conduct. Her lawyer forced an examination for the mark. It was right where Ms. DuBois said it was. Grainger then admitted to having sex with her, but said the sex was consensual.”

“They all say the sex was consensual,” Kathryn remarked.

Tim laughed. “Unfortunately for both Grainger and Ms. DuBois, their contracts with the school include a morals clause. Both were clearly in violation of that clause. They were fired. Jill Grainger has kicked her husband out of their apartment and filed for divorce. Of course she’ll have to get out of the apartment with the kids sooner rather than later. The school owns it. They’ll give her until the end of July, I imagine. The new head and his family will want at least a month before school starts to get settled.”

“Are you certain you don’t want to go back?” Kathryn asked him softly. “Until six months ago it was your life.”

“I like this life better,” Tim told his wife. “I know you heard what I said to Ray. I meant it, Kathy. I love you, and I’m happy right here in Egret Pointe, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed as the relief poured through her.

Watching the scene play out between Tim and Kathy on his Fiend Finder, Fyfe McKay swore irritably. He had been so certain he could break up the newlyweds. Timothy Blair had always wanted the headmaster’s job at Kensington Academy, and Fyfe McKay had made it possible for him to have it. What had happened to him that he would turn down such a plum? The job he had coveted, his co-op with its upkeep paid. What else did the damned man want?

It had almost been embarrassingly easy to tempt David Grainger with the hot-blooded and ambitious Irene DuBois. Grainger was an egotistical fool who had just turned fifty and was beginning to doubt his virility. The little French teacher was looking for a husband, and an important man seemed better than an unimportant one. It had been a match made in hell. But his plan hadn’t worked at all. He would have to take another tack. The spring equinox was coming up fast. And his uncle did not like failure.

And then it came to him in a flash. If he couldn’t tempt Timothy Blair, he would tempt Kathy. He knew the fantasies she had programmed into her six-button remote. He couldn’t give her back The Channel right now, but he could certainly put those fantasies back into her libido. He could insinuate them into her dreams. When her husband saw the passion she exhibited in her sleep, it was certain to make him jealous and drive a wedge between them. He could make them both miserable. Tim would leave her. Kathy would become embittered and he would win his wager with his uncle.

That same night Kathryn St. John Blair began to dream. She found herself in Rapunzel’s tower, and heard a man’s voice pleading with her to let down her hair. Going over to the tower window she leaned out. “What do you want?” she demanded of the handsome prince who stood beneath in the shadows.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your golden hair.”

“Why?” Kathryn questioned.

“Because I want to fuck you, Rapunzel. I will make you scream with delight.”

“Get lost!” Kathryn said. “I’m not interested.”

“But I must fuck you, my beautiful princess!”

And suddenly of its own accord the long blond hair flung itself over the windowsill. The prince began to climb up it. When he was halfway to her Kathryn reached for a pair of shears lying near Rapunzel’s embroidery frame. Leaning out the window she cut through the thick golden tresses, and the prince fell screaming to the ground.

She half woke but then fell back into sleep again.

“Milady St. Jean, open the door. ’Tis I, Porthos, and I have several friends with me.”

“Go away!” Kathryn said. “I’m not interested.”

“We’ll have a four way. You can suck one of us while two of us fuck you in your cunt and your ass.”

“No!”

The door was forced, and the three musketeers pushed their way into the chamber. Kathryn grabbed up two pistols from the table and shot Porthos and Athos dead. Then, flinging the pistols at Aramis, she pulled Porthos’s sword from its scabbard and ran Aramis through his heart. He fell to the floor atop the other two. Once again, Kathryn attempted to awaken, but something forced her back into an even deeper sleep.

She found herself in the tent of Temur the barbarian. What the dickens was happening? Kathryn wondered. She had never had dreams like this. She didn’t want dreams like this. She struggled to awaken even as Temur came toward her, waving a gigantic penis at her and smiling an evil smile. It was then she recognized the face of Fyfe McKay. She was naked. Helpless. But then she saw the dagger upon the mattress he was attempting to force her down upon. Grabbing it up she sliced his cock off, and he exploded in a burst of black dust. Kathryn woke up gasping, Tim’s arms around her.

“Kathy! Kathy! Are you all right? You’ve been moaning and even shrieking in your sleep,” her husband said. Concern was written all over his handsome face.

Tim
! It was Tim. “I had the most horrific nightmare,” she said. She was shaking. “I never had a nightmare in my whole life until now.”

“Is it gone?” he asked. “Do you remember what it was all about?” he asked her.

“No,” she lied, shaking her head. “But I somehow don’t think I’ll have another nightmare like it again. I haven’t been feeling well lately. I think I may be coming down with the flu, Tim. I’m going to stay home tomorrow.”

“Good girl!” he approved, kissing her gently, and cuddling her as she fell back asleep. She did feel a bit warm.

The next day Kathryn remained home alone. It was early afternoon when the doorbell rang. Going to it she was astounded to see Mr. Nicholas. “Nicholas!”

He stepped across her threshold. “My dear girl, I came to apologize for my nephew’s disgraceful behavior last night.” He took her by her shoulders and kissed her upon her forehead. “It was totally unconscionable, which I would approve, had it been anyone else but you, Kathy.”

She brought him into the living room, where she had been lying upon the couch, and he sat down. “Why on earth did he give me such a nightmare, Nicholas?”

“Fyfe does not entirely understand human nature, my dear. The dark side of humanity, yes, but the good in people, no. I am who I am because I do understand both sides. When I cut you off from The Channel it was because, as I told you then, I should never be able to take your soul from you. You are too good. I felt you deserved what all people want, and what so many do not gain. Happiness.”

“Did you put Tim in my path, Nicholas?”

“No, my dear, I can take no credit for that, I fear,” he admitted. “Fyfe in his ignorance does not understand love, or the great power it has. He believed he could destroy your happiness with your bridegroom and turn you to me. I knew he could not, but to humor him I gave him from the winter solstice to the spring equinox to accomplish his goal. He has, of course, failed miserably.”

“Did I kill him?” Kathryn asked nervously.

Mr. Nicholas chuckled wickedly. “No, but I believe he wishes that you did. It will take several hundred years to regrow that skillful cock of his, and of course during that time he will be of little use to me in his former capacity. I’ve assigned him to my accounting department, where he will weigh and balance souls. It’s quite dull work, I fear. There is no glamour to it at all. But then the wages of sin . . .” and Mr. Nicholas chuckled once again. “I just wanted to pop in and assure you, Kathy, that you will not be plagued again by my people. Nothing is all black or all white in this universe, my dear, and even the devil can sometimes have a soft heart for a good woman. Good-bye, Kathryn St. John. It is very unlikely that we shall meet again.”

Then Mr. Nicholas was gone in a flash, and she woke up on the couch, where she had been napping when the doorbell rang. Her stomach was roiling, and scrambling up, she headed for the bathroom, where she promptly threw up. When Tim came home, he called Dr. Sam. Dr. Sam came, told Tim to leave him with his patient, and then looked closely at Kathryn. He conducted a brief examination.

“When did you have your last period, Kathy?”

“They’re irregular now,” she answered.

“When?”

“Last September, I think,” she answered him. “Why?”

“Could you pee for me now?” Dr. Sam said.

“Sure.”

He reached into his bag, and pulled out what appeared to be a plastic stick. “Go pee on this, and then bring it back to me.”

“No!” she said recognizing the pregnancy stick. “I’m too old.”

“Maybe, but maybe not,” Dr. Sam told her. “Go pee.”

Kathryn brought the stick back a few moments later, and together they watched as the stick turned colors, and then read, YOU’RE PREGNANT! “It’s got to be a mistake,” Kathryn said to him. “I’m going to be forty-nine this summer.”

“These things are usually pretty accurate, especially given that you may be coming out of your first trimester,” Dr. Sam said. “But I’ll want to run a few more tests. Be in my office tomorrow morning at ten,” he said, standing. Then, opening the bedroom door, he called Tim. “Your wife has a little surprise for you.” He chuckled as he left them. “I’ll let myself out.”

“Are you all right, love?” Tim asked anxiously, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“I’m pregnant,” Kathryn said. “How do you feel about being a father?”

His jaw dropped.
“You’re what?”

“Dr. Sam wants to run a few more tests, but it seems I’m probably pregnant,” she told him. “I never considered being a mother. You ever think of being a father?”

“We’re going to have a baby!” His blue eyes were dancing with delight.

And when she saw his genuine happiness, Kathryn St. John Blair began to cry.

She didn’t understand why such joy should be hers. Was Nicholas right about her? Was she a truly good woman? Or was this all just an incredible result of all the passionate pleasures that she and Tim shared? She didn’t care. It was more than enough happiness to last her the rest of her life, however long that would be.

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